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Monday, 12 September 2011

Zemun gangsters enter pleas in PM murder case

Addressing the Special Court in Belgrade, Kalinić confirmed that the shooter was Zvezdan Jovanović. Jovanović has already been found guilty and convicted on the charge, along with Milorad Ulemek Legija, who was tried as the main conspirator. "After the murder I was sitting with Jovanović and (one of Zemun Clan leaders) Mile Luković Kum, and we were watching TV when Jovanović said, 'I guarantee that he is not alive'," Kalinić told the judges as his retrial in the Đinđić murder case started on Monday. He also claimed that Luković told him that "Zveki (Zvezdan Jovanović) bumped off the prime minister", and that Jovanović himself confirmed this. But Kalinić denied that he had any role in the assassination, and told the judges he was "asleep" when the murder took place on March 12, 2003, and that Luković "called him around 13:00". He confirmed that he was acquainted with Jovanović since 1993, that he "saw Milorad Ulemek (Legija) once in Bosnia", and that he met the Zemun Clan leader Dušan Spasojević, "a couple of years before the murder of Đinđić". Kalinić also denied that he was a member of the Zemun Clan. Another gangster that spent years on the run after the assassination, Miloš Simović, was in the courtroom for the start of his retrial in the case. Both were originally found guilty and each sentenced in absentia to 30 years in prison, but the retrial was granted on grounds that they were "tried in absentia". Unlike Kalinić, Simović admitted to taking part in the murder, and said he "also knew about the political background", but refused to elaborate on this point. Last June, Simović shot and wounded Kalinić in Zagreb, Croatia, and was arrested several days later while attempting to cross the border between into Serbia. Kalinić was arrested in Croatia and later extradited to Serbia.